R&R in the human coop. We decided not to mess with it (it is still not looking infected).
We are indeed monitoring closely. We gave her scrambled eggs but will try for boiled or something later. It is definitely not raining.
It's safe to wash? Right now, she is in our living room. No flies, no other chickens. We're going to set her up with a pen in the house.
We tried Vertericyn and Bluekote yeserday, but I think my husband just sprayed it on. We haven't been brave enough to try cleaning it yet, as I said, worried...
We typically allow our chickens to free range, though they have a secure coop and run. About four days ago, we had a fox attack in the middle of the day. My husband found one corpse, with two other chickens missing (large #s of feathers for two chickens). We began closing up all the chickens in...
Finally finished the run! The chickens love it. Good thing they can't tell the coop is still unpainted...
This is probably one of the longest coop/run builds ever, and it's still not done. Definitely functional, though. My husband will be covering it with a 1/2" hardware cloth skirt this...
(Yeah, poop could accumulate, I thought of that too, but the plywood corners don't extend so far that we can't get inside to clean if we like)
I added a third concrete block at the bottom, but didn't move the top. This morning I was actually able to observe them coming out (usually they take...
Yup, that's what I had in mind. I don't want to do it until we've fixed up the surface. It's not super wobbly right now, just not ideal long term.
Nah, the hinges on the frame are in the way (I could mount the thing on the very edges, but then it wouldn't be in contact with the door...). I...
The "platform" actually doubles as the chicken door. Here's a photo of it closed, for reference:
The bottom square thing isn't super strong, and could benefit from a diagonal brace below, but it's ok for now and I don't want to install one until we (finally, haha) get the coop painted.
Ok, photos of my ramp... They don't seem to be using it at all, but the entrance is functional. They just fly up and down when they want to get in and out. Our heavy Brahma prefers to beg humans to be put up and down if we're around, though, and seems not at all interested in the ramp (though...
That is super helpful! I was thinking about scratch but hadn't done it yet. The ramp is a little on the steep side; I might try sticking another concrete block or so underneath it. The problem isn't not leaving--I open the door and they fly out, no need to bother with ramps at all! It's the...
Did you have to train the chickens to the sideways ramp at all? I just built a ramp in sort of this configuration (though perhaps at a steeper angle--Maybe that's the problem--I'll get a picture later). My husband is convinced they will never, ever use it. One reason he cites is that it is sort...
Will a big height for jumping really work for little chicks? We haven't used a ramp so far, but I was planning to build one soon, since we have chicks in the coop and I'd like to get them integrated, but I'm worried about letting them out without a way to jump back in. I was assuming a ramp...
I am just about to make a door for our run, and I was planning on making it about 6' total, but was thinking of making it into two doors. The left part will have the static part of the gate latch and two sliding latches on the inside at the top and bottom to keep it in place most of the time (to...
This is similar to what we just started, maybe a week later! Our flock is free-ranging, however. We have six adult (just) hens, and eight pullets not yet in the coop but free-ranging at the same time. We had one of our BOs go broody, also, and got her a dozen hatching eggs. After they were all...
She got up and my husband removed the last... THREE? eggs. Two marked, one not. The marked eggs were clearly fertile, but also clearly dead (red rings and all).
Which brings us to egg #3... Unmarked. Appeared in sealed broody area, and appears to be hers (from what we know of her). Does this...
Here's a photo in the new place. I saw six peeps up and about drinking and eating this morning; I'm worried the one died in the night and is under her, but I didn't want to disturb her.
10 hatched! Though one is looking iffy. She made a stinky poop in the nest, so we moved her to a broody area in the coop, as well as the last two eggs. She settled down on top of them and the peepers crawled in also; we're not super hopeful about the last two, but she seems to be. (Picture from...
Yes, I certainly leveled the structure! I meant vs leveling the ground. I laid out the footprint with batter boards and a line level, posts with a post level, and used a 4' level along the crossbeams at the "bottom" (lowest level crossing all posts) and top. There was probably some cumulative...
It's a perfect site, except for that slope! Most annoying thing was the uneven lengths of posts. I dug them all in 2' (less than for the coop, but hopefully enough to be moderately stable--No walls to take wind). It would have been easier without the slope, but this was still easier than leveling!